Not helping

[Gob]

Alexandra Mezher was young, beautiful and, above all, kind.



She was also the face of a new and idyllic Sweden. The 22-year-old's family hailed from Lebanon. Ms Mezher began working at an asylum centre a few months ago, helping unaccompanied minor migrants adapt to life in their adopted home.

Now her alleged murder at the hands of one of those young migrants threatens to shatter that idyllic image of the Scandinavian country, already under strain as it reacts to an influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees.

"It is so terrible. She was a person who wanted to do good," Ms Mezher's cousin told Swedish newspaper Expressen. "And then he murdered her when she was doing her job.

"It is the Swedish politicians' fault that she is dead," the cousin added.

Ms Mezher was allegedly stabbed in the back on Monday by a 15-year-old migrant at the refugee centre for unaccompanied migrants aged 14 to 17 in Molndal, a city of about 40,000 on the south-western coast near Gothenburg, Expressen reported.

"It was messy, of course, a crime scene with blood," police spokesman Thomas Fuxborg told Swedish news agency TT. He refused to identify Ms Mezher's alleged attacker, his nationality or his motive, but Mr Fuxborg did say that other asylum seekers tried to come to Ms Mezher's aid.

"The perpetrator had been overpowered by other residents," Mr Fuxborg said, adding that everyone at the centre was "depressed and upset" about the stabbing.

Staffan Alexandersson, a social worker and spokesperson for Living Nordic AB, the company that runs the centre, described the incident as a "horrible and tragic event".

"We regret what happened," he told TT, "and we're working right now in the crisis team to deal with both staff and children."

Ms Mezher, who was of Christian Lebanese background, died of her injuries shortly after she was taken to the nearby Sahlgrenska Hospital.

Her mother, Chimene, spoke of her grief as her family blamed Sweden's politicians for her death."She was my air, she was my everything, why her?" Mrs Mezher said.

The boy, whose country of origin was not disclosed, was arrested on suspicion of murder and is being held ahead of a detention hearing.

The killing comes at a crucial time for Sweden. The country of 9.8 million initially took an accommodating stance towards the millions of migrants fleeing Syria and other hot spots, accepting more than 160,000 asylum seekers in 2015, including about 35,000 unaccompanied minors. Per capita, the Swedes welcomed more refugees than any other country, except Germany.

But, as the number of migrants mounted, so, too, did anger towards them. And, by late last year, Sweden had reversed its open-doors policy and introduced border controls and identification checks to stem the flow of immigrants.

The symbolism of Ms Mezher's death - a Swede from a Middle Eastern family allegedly stabbed by a recently arrived migrant - was not lost on the country's politicians.

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven visited the asylum centre just hours after the killing, calling it a "terrible crime" and admitting that it tapped into escalating fears.

"I believe that there are quite many people in Sweden who feel a lot of concern that there can be more cases of this kind, when Sweden receives so many children and youth, who come alone [to seek asylum]," Radio Sweden reported him as saying.

He promised more resources for police, saying that security forces were taxed by the recent influx of immigrants.

"The police authority have got ... a heavier workload because of the refugee situation," he said. "And then you need more resources."

His comments were echoed by National Police Commissioner Dan Eliasson, who on Monday requested 4100 additional officers to fight terrorism, carry out migrant deportations and patrol asylum centres.

"We are forced to respond to many disturbances in asylum reception centres," he told TT. "This was not the case six months ago and it means that we won't be able to respond as effectively in other areas."

In an interview with TT, Lena Nitz, the director of the police union, said, "It is obvious that the migrant situation is a great strain.

"It has become clear that the situation is completely unsustainable."

The number of threats or violent incidents at asylum shelters more than doubled last year, from 148 in 2014 to 322 in 2015, news website The Local reported, citing statistics from the Swedish Migration Agency. The same facilities have become targets for immigration opponents, with at least two dozen centres damaged by arson last year, the website reported.

Gothenburg, just north of Molndal, has been the epicentre of unrest over migrants arriving in Sweden. But incidents elsewhere have set the entire country on edge.

On August 10, an Eritrean immigrant allegedly stabbed two people to death at an IKEA near Stockholm after his asylum petition was denied.

Two months later, a man with a Darth Vader-like mask, sword and "racist motive" allegedly attacked "dark-skinned" students at a school in Trollhattan, killing one student and a young teacher's assistant.

More recently, Mr Lofven criticised Swedish police for "betraying" women by allegedly covering up allegations that they were sexual harassed by recent immigrants at a music festival in Stockholm, The Guardian reported. The newspaper also reported similar attacks on women in Malmo on New Year's Eve.

The stabbing in Molndal stunned Ms Mezher's family.

"I felt a big shock. I was so sad," one cousin told Expressen.

"We have cried a lot," another cousin said. "She was such a nice person, warm and happy."

Meanwhile, in neighbouring Denmark, the country's Parliament yesterday voted to adopt controversial reforms aimed at dissuading migrants by delaying family reunifications and allowing authorities to seize valuables, under legislation that has sparked widespread condemnation.

The government insists the law is needed to stem the flow of refugees even though Denmark and Sweden recently tightened their borders - a move that prompted Germany and Austria to turn back new arrivals heading for Scandinavia.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/15yearold-m ... z3yP8HzUnG

[MajGenl.Meade]

"It is the Swedish politicians' fault that she is dead,

her family blamed Sweden's politicians for her death

Of course. Who else?

What a tragic end

[Bicycle Bill]

"It is the Swedish politicians' fault that she is dead,

her family blamed Sweden's politicians for her death

Of course. Who else?

What a tragic end

Why aren't they blaming the fifteen-year-old son of a bitch with the knife?

-"BB"-

[Gob]

Sweden's National Police Commissioner Dan Eliasson, 54, who has already admitted police cannot cope with the wave of migrant crime, said he has concerns about the 'horrors' and trauma the accused murderer has witnessed.

He said he was 'distraught' for murdered Alexandra Mezher, 22, and her family but so too also for her alleged killer, the 15-year-old Somali boy accused of stabbing her to death in the back and thigh, saying: 'What has that person been through? Under what circumstances has he grown up? What is the trauma he carries?'

It came as court documents showed police do not know the true identity of the youth who has been arrested for the killing.

[rubato]

Racist hysteria. Sweden has one of the lowest murder rates in the world. Much lower than the UK and less than 1/5th of the US. :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... icide_rate

Idiots.


yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

Catching up now that the place is filling up with ...

[Lord Jim]

he has concerns about the 'horrors' and trauma the accused murderer has witnessed.

He said he was 'distraught' for murdered Alexandra Mezher, 22, and her family but so too also for her alleged killer, the 15-year-old Somali boy accused of stabbing her to death in the back and thigh, saying: 'What has that person been through? Under what circumstances has he grown up? What is the trauma he carries?'

Who does this guy think he is? A British judge?

Mr. Eliasson is the true "idiot" in this...

[Gob]

Of course, the country having a low rate few murder REALLY matters if your child is killed....

Forty years ago, 421 rapes were reported to the police in Sweden annually. By 2010, according to a BBC report, police recorded the highest number of offences — about 63 per 100,000 inhabitants — of any force in Europe. That was the second highest in the world — surpassed only by Lesotho in southern Africa.
In 2014, according to the Gatestone Institute, a respected American think tank, the number of rapes had risen to 6,620, an increase of 1,472 per cent since 1975.
In August, a double murder in an Ikea store in Vasteras, a small city in central Sweden, sent shockwaves through the nation. The victims were ethnic Swedes, 55-year-old Carola Herlin and her 28-year-old son, Emil. Their attacker was a 36-year-old Eritrean migrant who confessed to the random killings, apparently carried out with knives seized from the store's kitchenware department.